Diego Bortoluzzi (born 23 September 1966) is an Italian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach, most recently in charge as head coach of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

Playing career

Coming from the renowned youth system of

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

, Bortoluzzi made his senior debut in the

league on 17 March 1985, in a game against

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

. He was successively loaned out to

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

(

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

) and

L.R. Vicenza L.R. Vicenza S.p.A. (acronym for ''Lanerossi Vicenza''), better known as Vicenza or Lanerossi, is an Italian football club based in the city of Vicenza. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league. Founded on 9 March ...

(

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

) before leaving Atalanta for good to join rivals

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

. After a single season back at Serie C1 level with Pro Sesto, he joined

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in 1991, playing five full Serie B seasons with the club. He then remarkably played five seasons at

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

as key player and also team captain, before retiring in 2003 after a short stint with amateurs Conegliano.

Coaching career

In January 2004,

Francesco Guidolin Francesco Guidolin (; born 3 October 1955) is an Italian association football, football manager and former player, most recently the manager of Premier League team Swansea City A.F.C., Swansea City. He has coached various Italian club sides in Se ...

appointed Bortoluzzi as his assistant coach at

, with whom he oversaw a historic promotion to

over 30 years after the ''Rosaneros last top flight appearance. He left Palermo on the summer of 2005, following Guidolin's departure, to become youth coach of his former playing club

, who were just promoted to the top flight for their very first time. He was successively appointed new head coach in February 2006, following

Alberto Cavasin Alberto Cavasin (born 9 January 1956) is an Italian football manager and former player. Playing career Cavasin, a right back, started his professional career in 1973 for Treviso; he then played for a number of Serie A, B and C clubs, with so ...

's dismissal and with just 14 points in the league, failing to save the team from relegation. Despite that, he was confirmed for the following Serie B season, only to be fired on 5 November after managing to achieve only ten points in the first ten league games. In November 2007, he returned to Palermo to work alongside Guidolin, then following him to work as his assistant at

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

and

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. He then served as

Andrea Mandorlini Andrea Mandorlini (born 17 July 1960) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Playing career Mandorlini made his playing debut on 4 February 1979 with Torino. He left Torino in 1980 to join then-Serie B team Atalanta. Aft ...

's assistant at

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

from July to November 2015, and then again as Guidolin's assistant at

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

from January to October 2016. On 11 April 2017, he was named as the fifth head coach of the season of

(after

Davide Ballardini Davide Ballardini (born 6 January 1964) is an Italian football manager. He was most recently the head coach of Sassuolo. Playing career A former midfielder, Ballardini spent seven years as a player with Cesena under youth team coach Arrigo Sacch ...

Roberto De Zerbi Roberto De Zerbi (; born 6 June 1979) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Ligue 1 club Marseille. Playing career De Zerbi started his professional career at AC Milan. He spent four se ...

Eugenio Corini Eugenio Corini (born 30 July 1970) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. A talented, dynamic, and hard-working playmaker, known for his precise long passing, flair and his ability to orchestrate his team's attacking moves ...

and

Luis Diego López Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

) for the remainder of the season, with Palermo having just achieved 15 points in 31 games (out of 38) and deep in relegation trouble. Among all things, the club's new chairman Paul Baccaglini explicitly stated his appointment was suggested by Francesco Guidolin. Despite an improvement in results, Bortoluzzi did not manage to save the team from relegation to Serie B and he was thus not confirmed for the new season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bortoluzzi, Diego 1966 births Living people Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Italian football managers Serie A players Serie A managers Atalanta BC players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players LR Vicenza players Brescia Calcio players Venezia FC players US Avellino 1912 players Treviso FBC 1993 players Treviso FBC 1993 managers Palermo FC managers Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from Vittorio Veneto Footballers from Veneto 20th-century Italian sportsmen